Going…Going…Gone! Finally

If there is one thing that Los Angeles boasts the greatest number of per capita, it has to be crazy people. In fact, I’m pretty sure the celebrity to loony ratio is rapidly declining. Hell, now-a-days stars fit into both categories. (You know who you are!)

A 41-year old man who resided near the Pasadena area of Southern California died on Friday after jumping off the side of a freeway overpass and “merging” with the 210 pavement. Okay, that’s not nearly juicy enough for this town. No no no… Get this: It was the guy’s tenth attempt at committing suicide dating back over the last several years. I know! Talk about staying true to the proverb, “If at first you don’t succeed… try, try, again.” Never once did it cross this guy’s mind around the eighth failed attempt that maybe it wasn’t his time?

Or how about get a little creative buddy? If five times wasn’t a charm with the jumping technique… how about improvising with some rope and rat poison. I’m just saying, sometimes blueprints have to be tweaked a bit. No shame in that. But I’m not sure I’d want my local legacy to be: “about damn time!”

According to the Pasadena News, “Francisco Solomon Sanchez was pronounced dead shortly after 4:15 p.m. Friday [and] an autopsy ruled the cause of death a suicide.” One of his attempts back in 2003 when he attempted to jump from a freeway overpass in the Duarte area resulted in “Sanchez having two prosthetic legs after he broke both ankles.” These are what I like to call blatant red flags.

This is not the first suicide attempt on the 210 freeway. In fact, the report goes on to disclose that “in April of this year, a man jumped from the overpass in La Canada Flintridge. [Then] in May 2010, police were able to convince another man to climb down safely after he threatened to throw himself off the overpass in Azusa. And [once again] in November 2008, a suicide caused a second death in the form of a traffic collision.”

The reason the state was clueless regarding this danger aspect is because, “Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) revealed that while the department has a database to track traffic accidents, there is no system to record suicides and suicide attempts.” Hmm… not even ten by the same nut?

Still no word if the man’s stone will read “persistent” or “speed bump.”